VI PREFACE. 



Loinbe, who travelled in that country for the purpose of ac- 

 quiring the necsssary information. But according to state- 

 ments, 'which are supposed to he authentic, he fell a victim to 

 the jealousies of the Italians, having been poisoned by them. 

 They were first known in America, about 1C20, in the reign 

 of James I., who sent out eggs and Mulberry seed to Vir- 

 ginia, and a book of instructions for their culture, written by 

 himself. 



The nature and origin of silk, were secrets in most coun- 

 tries long after the article was known. That the Romans 

 were ignorant, of its origin, is manifest from the accounts 

 which different writers give of it. It was supposed by some 

 to be the product of a tree, growing on its trunk and branches 

 as hair grows upon the bodies of animals. Others supposed 

 it proceeded from a shell-fish a kind of muscle which throws 

 out threads for the purpose of attaching ilself to rocks. 

 Others supposed it to he the entrails of a particular kind of 

 spider, after being fed on paste, and the leaves of the green 

 willow until it burst with fat. Others imputed it to an insect 

 which built nests of clay and collected wax. These differ- 

 ent ways of accounting for it, show that they were in utter 

 ignorance of the Worm, by whose labor it is produced. 



According to the ancients, silk was first brought from 

 Serica or Sereindn, (China) in small quantities. The Chinese 

 ascribe the origin of the manufacture to the invention of the 

 Empress Si-ling-shi, wife of the Emperor Hoang-ti, about 

 2700 years before Christ. Manufactured silk was little known 

 in Europe, at the time of the reign of the Emperor Augustus, 

 who was contemporary with Christ; and it is mentioned aa 

 a wanton extravagance, in the prodigal Heliogabulus, that lie 

 had a garment made wholly of silk. The Emperor Aurelian, 

 870 years after this, refused his Empress a silk robe merely 



